2019
Asia's Top
Investors &
Dealmakers 50
The 2019 edition recognizes influence as a combination of capital consequence and market architecture. A high ranking is not awarded simply for fund size, public visibility, or association with a large institution. InfluenceAsia places heavier weight on the individual's direct role in shaping capital flows, opening investable categories, creating founder access, structuring consequential transactions, expanding the credibility of Asian private markets, and exercising judgement in a year when the region's late-cycle optimism was increasingly tested by valuation pressure, regulatory recalibration, trade tension, liquidity selectivity, and the first visible limits of unlimited-growth capital.
InfluenceAsia 50: Asia's Top Investors & Dealmakers 2019 identifies the individual capital allocators and transaction architects who most decisively shaped Asia's investment economy during the year. The list covers the full spectrum of capital influence: sovereign investors allocating patient national balance sheets, private equity leaders professionalizing buyouts and control investing, venture capitalists selecting the companies that define the next demand cycle, and dealmakers translating entrepreneurial ambition into fundraisings, mergers, acquisitions, strategic partnerships, and public-market pathways.
In 2019, Asia's investment system stood at a turning point. The previous decade had rewarded speed, network effects, market capture, and ever-larger private rounds. By the end of the year, the market demanded a more difficult standard: scale still mattered, but durability, governance, unit economics, exit quality, and capital efficiency became impossible to ignore.
The ranking recognizes named individuals, not funds, companies, investment banks, partnerships, families, or government bodies.
50Honorees in the final list
23Capital bases represented
7Weighted research dimensions
22%Highest methodology weight
Representative Standouts
Capital allocators who set the 2019 tone
The opening tier captures sovereign stewards, private equity institution builders, venture capitalists and strategic transaction architects whose decisions shaped Asian capital formation.
Masayoshi Son
- Base
- Japan
- Role
- Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, SoftBank Group
Son remained the most consequential Asian technology capital allocator of 2019 because his vision-scale financing model changed the negotiating power of founders, the behavior of competing investors, and the private valuation architecture of global technology markets.
Neil Shen
- Base
- China
- Role
- Founding and Managing Partner, Sequoia China
Shen stood at the center of China's venture and growth-capital system, combining founder access, category range, and a rare record of backing consumer internet, enterprise technology, healthcare, and deep-tech companies before they became national platforms.
Lei Zhang
- Base
- China and Hong Kong
- Role
- Founder and Chairman, Hillhouse Capital
Zhang was selected for transforming long-term growth investing in Asia into a sophisticated institutional discipline spanning public equities, private equity, healthcare, consumer, technology, and corporate transformation.
Ho Ching
- Base
- Singapore
- Role
- Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, Temasek Holdings
Ho Ching was one of Asia's most important sovereign-capital stewards, directing a long-term investment institution with strategic exposure to technology, financial services, life sciences, consumer, infrastructure, and sustainability-linked themes.
Lim Chow Kiat
- Base
- Singapore
- Role
- Chief Executive Officer, GIC
Lim was selected for leading one of Asia's deepest global institutional capital platforms through a year that demanded diversification, patience, and risk discipline across public and private markets.
Yasir Al-Rumayyan
- Base
- Saudi Arabia
- Role
- Governor, Public Investment Fund
Al-Rumayyan ranked highly for directing one of West Asia's most visible sovereign investment platforms during a year of major capital formation, strategic domestic investment, and global portfolio scrutiny.
Full List
The complete 2019 ranking
Each entry preserves the honoree's base, primary platform or role, selection rationale and InfluenceAsia dossier from the source dataset.
| Rank | Honoree | 2019 base | Platform or role | Dossier |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Masayoshi Son Son remained the most consequential Asian technology capital allocator of 2019 because his vision-scale financing model changed the negotiating power of founders, the behavior of competing investors, and the private valuation architecture of global technology markets. | Japan | Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, SoftBank Group | In 2019, Son's influence was inseparable from the scale and controversy of mega-round capital. The year exposed the limits of growth-at-any-cost financing, yet it also confirmed that no Asian investor had more power to reprice categories, accelerate competitive behavior, and force public markets to debate the discipline of private technology investing. His ranking reflects market-defining consequence, not unqualified approval. |
| 2 | Neil Shen Shen stood at the center of China's venture and growth-capital system, combining founder access, category range, and a rare record of backing consumer internet, enterprise technology, healthcare, and deep-tech companies before they became national platforms. | China | Founding and Managing Partner, Sequoia China | By 2019, Shen represented the mature form of China venture capital: data-sensitive, founder-connected, stage-flexible, and globally legible. His influence was visible in the continued institutionalization of China's startup financing system and in the way leading entrepreneurs treated his platform as both capital partner and strategic validator. |
| 3 | Lei Zhang Zhang was selected for transforming long-term growth investing in Asia into a sophisticated institutional discipline spanning public equities, private equity, healthcare, consumer, technology, and corporate transformation. | China and Hong Kong | Founder and Chairman, Hillhouse Capital | In 2019, Hillhouse's position as a patient, research-intensive investor gave Zhang an influence beyond individual deals. He helped normalize a style of Asian investing that blended deep sector work, long holding periods, governance engagement, and global capital credibility. His contribution was especially important as the market shifted from momentum to quality. |
| 4 | Ho Ching Ho Ching was one of Asia's most important sovereign-capital stewards, directing a long-term investment institution with strategic exposure to technology, financial services, life sciences, consumer, infrastructure, and sustainability-linked themes. | Singapore | Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, Temasek Holdings | Her 2019 influence was defined by stewardship at scale. Under her leadership, Temasek remained one of the region's most closely watched institutional investors, not because it chased fashion, but because its portfolio choices signaled how patient Asian capital was reading technology disruption, demographic change, and balance-sheet resilience. |
| 5 | Lim Chow Kiat Lim was selected for leading one of Asia's deepest global institutional capital platforms through a year that demanded diversification, patience, and risk discipline across public and private markets. | Singapore | Chief Executive Officer, GIC | In 2019, Lim's role mattered because long-horizon sovereign capital was becoming more central to private-market formation. His influence came from disciplined allocation rather than publicity: constructing resilient exposure, engaging globally, and maintaining the credibility of Asian institutional capital at a time when liquidity cycles were becoming less forgiving. |
| 6 | Yasir Al-Rumayyan Al-Rumayyan ranked highly for directing one of West Asia's most visible sovereign investment platforms during a year of major capital formation, strategic domestic investment, and global portfolio scrutiny. | Saudi Arabia | Governor, Public Investment Fund | His 2019 profile combined scale, ambition, and market signaling. He was central to a sovereign-capital agenda that reached technology, infrastructure, energy transition, entertainment, tourism, mobility, and global strategic partnerships. His position gave him unusual ability to influence both domestic capital architecture and Asia-linked global private markets. |
| 7 | Khaldoon Al Mubarak Al Mubarak was selected for building and directing a diversified sovereign investment platform with global reach and a strong role in technology, energy, infrastructure, healthcare, and advanced industry. | United Arab Emirates | Managing Director and Group Chief Executive Officer, Mubadala Investment Company | In 2019, he represented the increasingly sophisticated West Asian sovereign investor: globally connected, sector diversified, partnership driven, and able to deploy capital through both direct investment and platform strategy. His influence was reinforced by Mubadala's role as a bridge between Asian capital, global technology, and industrial transformation. |
| 8 | Jean Eric Salata Salata was one of Asia's defining private equity institution builders, with a platform that demonstrated how regional buyouts could be scaled, professionalized, and made credible to global capital. | Hong Kong | Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Baring Private Equity Asia | His 2019 contribution lay in showing that Asian private equity could move beyond minority growth investing into operationally engaged control, sector specialization, and repeatable value creation. In a market often dominated by venture narratives, Salata's platform helped anchor the buyout side of Asia's private-capital maturity. |
| 9 | Weijian Shan Shan ranked among Asia's most influential dealmakers for combining private equity, credit, real assets, and special-situation expertise with a long record of complex Asian transactions. | Hong Kong | Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, PAG | In 2019, Shan's importance came from judgement in complexity. His platform operated across markets where legal structure, governance, financing terms, and macro context could determine outcomes as much as growth. He represented the dealmaker as strategist: disciplined, cross-border, and capable of turning Asian market complexity into investable architecture. |
| 10 | Joseph Bae Bae was selected for his long role in building one of the most important global private equity franchises in Asia and for continuing to shape regional buyouts, infrastructure, real assets, and strategic capital deployment. | South Korea and United States | Co-President and senior Asia architect, KKR | His 2019 influence came from institutionalizing Asia within a global private-capital model. He helped elevate the region from satellite market to core allocation arena, building teams, relationships, and sector credibility across North Asia, Greater China, India, and Southeast Asia. |
| 11 | Bao Fan Bao was the most distinctive technology deal adviser in China, known for connecting founders, strategic buyers, growth investors, and public-market pathways across the country's new-economy sector. | China | Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, China Renaissance | In 2019, Bao's influence was strongest in the space between entrepreneurship and capital markets. He understood founder psychology, strategic consolidation, and the timing of financing events. His platform helped define how Chinese technology companies raised money, merged, repositioned, and prepared for liquidity. |
| 12 | Fred Hu Hu was selected for combining macroeconomic fluency, private equity discipline, and policy-aware investment judgement across consumer, technology, healthcare, and China-linked growth sectors. | China | Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Primavera Capital | In 2019, Hu's influence came from the ability to speak both the language of global institutional investors and the operating realities of Chinese enterprise. His dealmaking style emphasized quality franchises, long-term compounding, and strategic alignment in a year when the China investment narrative required more nuance than simple growth. |
| 13 | John Zhao Zhao ranked for his role in advancing Chinese private equity from founder-led growth funding into structured control, cross-border expansion, corporate carve-outs, and sector platform investing. | China | Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Hony Capital | By 2019, Zhao's career had become a reference point for Chinese buyout capability. His influence was visible in the way private equity was used to restructure legacy assets, back consumption upgrades, support healthcare and services platforms, and connect Chinese businesses with international markets. |
| 14 | Kai-Fu Lee Lee was selected for his influence at the intersection of artificial intelligence, founder formation, technical talent, and China venture capital. | China and United States | Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Sinovation Ventures | In 2019, Lee was more than an investor. He was a translator of technology consequence for founders, engineers, policymakers, and capital providers. His platform helped identify and nurture AI, automation, education technology, robotics, and enterprise software companies while raising the level of public understanding around China's innovation capacity. |
| 15 | Kathy Xu Xu ranked for her early and durable influence in China's consumer internet and commerce investing, especially her ability to identify founder-led platforms before they reached national scale. | China and Hong Kong | Founder, Capital Today | Her 2019 relevance came from patience and conviction. As the consumer internet market became more competitive and capital-intensive, Xu's record underscored the importance of understanding consumer behavior, merchant networks, logistics intensity, and founder persistence. She represented a quieter but highly consequential style of venture judgement. |
| 16 | Jenny Lee Lee was selected for her cross-border venture influence across China, Southeast Asia, and global technology markets, with particular strength in frontier consumer, hardware, fintech, and enterprise themes. | Singapore and China | Managing Partner, GGV Capital | In 2019, Lee's relevance increased as Asian venture investing became more regionally connected. Her work helped bring China-learned pattern recognition into Southeast Asia while maintaining global investor credibility. She stood out for technical fluency, early-category conviction, and a rare ability to build trust across founders and limited partners. |
| 17 | Hans Tung Tung ranked for his role in backing and advising consumer internet, marketplace, commerce, and globally scalable technology companies with strong Asia-US connectivity. | Taiwan, China, and United States | Managing Partner, GGV Capital | His 2019 influence was visible in the internationalization of venture-backed consumer platforms. Tung understood how products moved across markets, how network effects compounded, and how founder narratives had to mature for later-stage capital and strategic exits. He helped make Asia a central reference point in global venture investing. |
| 18 | Jixun Foo Foo was selected for his long-standing role in technology investment across China and Southeast Asia, especially in enterprise, consumer internet, and regional platform expansion. | Singapore and China | Managing Partner, GGV Capital | In 2019, Foo represented the disciplined operator-investor profile within Asian venture. His influence came from experience through multiple cycles, willingness to engage deeply with business models, and the ability to support companies as they crossed from local product-market fit into regional or global scale. |
| 19 | Anna Fang Fang ranked for professionalizing early-stage investing in China and for building one of the region's most important seed-stage founder access systems. | China | Chief Executive Officer and Founding Partner, ZhenFund | Her 2019 impact was rooted in the earliest layer of company formation. Fang's work helped seed new consumer, AI, education, robotics, and digital service companies before institutional capital could fully underwrite them. She combined speed with portfolio discipline and became a defining figure in China's next-generation venture pipeline. |
| 20 | Xu Xiaoping Xu was selected for his foundational role in China's angel-investment culture and for continuing to shape founder confidence, early capital access, and entrepreneurial storytelling. | China | Co-Founder, ZhenFund | In 2019, Xu's influence remained significant because early-stage capital is also cultural infrastructure. His public founder advocacy, extensive network, and willingness to back ambition at inception helped create a more confident entrepreneurial class. He represented the conversion of mentorship, conviction, and reputation into capital formation. |
| 21 | Shailendra Singh Singh ranked as one of the defining venture leaders in India and Southeast Asia, with influence across seed, venture, growth, and founder community programs. | India and Southeast Asia | Managing Director, Sequoia India and Southeast Asia | In 2019, Singh's platform became increasingly important as India and Southeast Asia moved from emerging startup regions to core venture markets. His influence came from institutional consistency, founder selection, follow-on capital access, and the creation of structured programs that gave early-stage companies a more disciplined path to scale. |
| 22 | Rajan Anandan Anandan was selected for bringing operational depth, founder mentorship, and early-stage ecosystem leadership into one of Asia's fastest-growing venture markets. | India and Southeast Asia | Managing Director and early-stage program leader, Sequoia India | His 2019 contribution was distinctive because he entered venture with deep experience scaling internet adoption across India and Southeast Asia. He helped strengthen the bridge between operators and investors, especially for seed-stage founders seeking product clarity, go-to-market discipline, and regional ambition. |
| 23 | Sumer Juneja Juneja ranked for becoming one of the most visible late-stage technology investors in India during a year when large private rounds shaped the country's internet economy. | India | Head of India investing, SoftBank Investment Advisers | In 2019, Juneja operated at the center of India's growth-capital surge. His influence came from high-conviction deployment into mobility, hospitality, logistics, commerce, and financial technology, while the market increasingly debated the responsibilities that came with very large private checks. |
| 24 | Lee Fixel Fixel was selected for his decade-long influence on India's internet investment cycle and for the continued 2019 significance of the companies, exits, and founder relationships he helped shape. | India and United States | Technology investor and India internet dealmaker | His 2019 relevance came from the aftereffects of major India technology investments and liquidity events that changed global perception of the market. Fixel helped prove that India could produce venture outcomes of international scale, and his deal judgement influenced how later investors priced category leaders. |
| 25 | Sanjay Nayar Nayar ranked for building one of India's most important institutional private equity and credit franchises, with influence across buyouts, financial services, infrastructure, and structured capital. | India | Chief Executive Officer, KKR India | In 2019, Nayar's value lay in local depth matched with global capital access. He understood promoter dynamics, governance transitions, credit complexity, and sector consolidation. His work helped broaden India's private-capital market beyond pure minority growth into more sophisticated financing and control-oriented structures. |
| 26 | Amit Dixit Dixit was selected for his role in building large-scale private equity exposure to India, especially in technology-enabled services, business services, real estate-linked platforms, and control-oriented growth. | India | Head of India Private Equity, Blackstone | In 2019, Dixit represented a disciplined institutional approach to Indian private equity. His influence came from identifying businesses that could professionalize, expand margins, globalize service delivery, and withstand deeper diligence. He helped reinforce India's credibility as a destination for large private-capital commitments. |
| 27 | Manish Kejriwal Kejriwal ranked for building an India-focused private equity platform with a reputation for governance alignment, domestic insight, and partnership with founder-led and family-controlled businesses. | India | Founder and Managing Partner, Kedaara Capital | His 2019 influence was rooted in trust-based buyout and growth investing. Kejriwal's work addressed one of India's central private-capital challenges: how to provide institutional money without ignoring local ownership culture, succession issues, and operating complexity. |
| 28 | Renuka Ramnath Ramnath was selected as one of India's most respected private equity leaders, known for company-building, founder partnership, and resilient domestic capital judgement. | India | Founder, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Multiples Alternate Asset Management | In 2019, Ramnath's influence extended beyond individual transactions. She helped set standards for Indian private equity leadership, especially around board engagement, long-term relationships, and disciplined support for mid-market companies. Her profile also mattered as a model of senior female leadership in Asian private capital. |
| 29 | Vani Kola Kola ranked for her contribution to India's venture ecosystem, particularly in early-stage consumer, enterprise, digital services, and founder development. | India | Founder and Managing Director, Kalaari Capital | In 2019, Kola remained a prominent voice for Indian entrepreneurship at a moment when founders needed both ambition and discipline. Her influence came from early conviction, operating empathy, public ecosystem leadership, and the ability to help founders navigate market noise without losing product focus. |
| 30 | Sudhir Sethi Sethi was selected for building a durable Indian venture platform across software, consumer, health technology, financial technology, and deep technology. | India | Founder and Chairman, Chiratae Ventures | His 2019 relevance came from cycle-tested venture discipline. Sethi's platform reflected the gradual professionalization of India's startup market: deeper sector specialization, stronger founder selection, improved governance, and more credible pathways from seed to growth rounds and exits. |
| 31 | Sandeep Singhal Singhal ranked for his role in connecting Indian founders to global venture standards, especially across enterprise software, consumer internet, and cross-border technology companies. | India | Co-Founder and Managing Director, Nexus Venture Partners | In 2019, Singhal's influence was tied to the rise of Indian startups building for both domestic and international markets. He helped define the investor profile required for that shift: early conviction, product depth, global network access, and the patience to help companies mature before scale capital arrived. |
| 32 | Nisa Leung Leung was selected for helping establish healthcare and biotech venture investing as a core pillar of China's innovation economy. | China and Hong Kong | Managing Partner, Qiming Venture Partners | In 2019, Leung's influence was especially important because Chinese venture capital was moving beyond consumer internet into science-led company formation. Her work in healthcare investing helped create bridges among scientists, founders, regulators, hospitals, and global capital, making biotech and medical technology more investable at venture scale. |
| 33 | Prashanth Prakash Prakash ranked for his role in backing early Indian technology companies and for his influence in building a founder-centered venture culture across software, marketplaces, and digital consumer categories. | India | Partner, Accel India | His 2019 contribution was ecosystem depth. Prakash helped founders think about product-market fit, talent density, and international relevance while maintaining a grounded view of India's uneven adoption curve. His presence reflected the importance of patient early-stage investors in a market increasingly crowded by late-stage capital. |
| 34 | Patrick Walujo Walujo was selected for shaping Southeast Asian private equity through control, growth, and strategic investments across consumer, financial services, technology, and resources-linked sectors. | Indonesia | Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Northstar Group | In 2019, Walujo's influence was visible in the professionalization of Indonesian and regional private capital. He combined local relationship depth with institutional standards, helping make Southeast Asia more investable for global capital while supporting companies that could benefit from governance, strategy, and expansion discipline. |
| 35 | Richard Ong Ong ranked for his role as a senior Asian dealmaker able to bridge private equity, strategic capital, China experience, Southeast Asian relationships, and complex cross-border transactions. | Singapore and Hong Kong | Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, RRJ Capital | In 2019, Ong represented the high-end transaction architect: discreet, relationship-driven, and capable of assembling capital around complicated opportunities. His influence came from a career that connected investment banking, private equity, sovereign-style discipline, and regional business networks. |
| 36 | Willson Cuaca Cuaca was selected for building one of Southeast Asia's most active early-stage venture platforms and for identifying Indonesia's digital consumer economy before it became mainstream for global investors. | Indonesia and Singapore | Co-Founder and Managing Partner, East Ventures | In 2019, Cuaca's influence lay in his access to founders at inception and his ability to interpret Southeast Asian behavior from the ground up. His platform helped institutionalize seed investing in Indonesia and supported the formation of companies across commerce, financial technology, logistics, and digital services. |
| 37 | Chua Kee Lock Chua ranked for leading a multi-market venture platform with an institutional approach to technology investing across Southeast Asia, China, India, Israel, and the United States. | Singapore | Chief Executive Officer, Vertex Holdings | In 2019, Chua's influence came from platform architecture. He helped demonstrate how Asian venture could be organized across specialized regional funds while still benefiting from shared networks, governance standards, and long-term institutional support. |
| 38 | Peng T. Ong Ong was selected for bringing operator credibility, technical depth, and early-stage conviction to Southeast Asia's venture market. | Singapore | Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Monk's Hill Ventures | In 2019, his influence was visible in the region's maturing founder base. Ong helped raise expectations for product talent, engineering seriousness, and company-building discipline, especially in markets where early-stage venture capital was still developing repeatable standards. |
| 39 | Khailee Ng Ng ranked for expanding seed-stage access across Southeast Asia and for giving a broad generation of founders a clearer route into venture-backed company formation. | Malaysia and Southeast Asia | Managing Partner, 500 Startups Southeast Asia | In 2019, Ng's contribution was breadth. He helped turn a fragmented startup geography into a more connected founder network, particularly across Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines. His influence came from velocity, accessibility, and the creation of a regional early-stage vocabulary. |
| 40 | Yinglan Tan Tan was selected for building an independent Southeast Asian venture platform focused on early-stage technology companies with regional ambition. | Singapore and Southeast Asia | Founding Managing Partner, Insignia Ventures Partners | In 2019, Tan's influence was tied to the rise of specialized local venture firms that could compete for founder access against larger global platforms. He emphasized speed, sector knowledge, and founder support across commerce, financial technology, logistics, and enterprise software. |
| 41 | Vinnie Lauria Lauria ranked for helping establish Southeast Asia as a legitimate venture destination and for supporting founders across the region's early consumer internet and platform cycles. | Singapore and Southeast Asia | Founding Partner, Golden Gate Ventures | In 2019, Lauria's relevance came from persistence through the region's formative years. He helped global investors understand Southeast Asia as more than a collection of small markets, emphasizing regional expansion, mobile-first adoption, and founder communities that could scale across borders. |
| 42 | Nick Nash Nash was selected for translating operating and public-market experience in Southeast Asian technology into a new growth-equity platform launched for the region's maturing internet economy. | Singapore | Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Asia Partners | In 2019, Nash represented a new category of dealmaker in Southeast Asia: an operator-investor focused on the gap between venture rounds and public-market readiness. His influence came from understanding what regional technology companies needed after product-market fit: governance, finance function depth, disciplined growth, and exit preparation. |
| 43 | Taizo Son Son ranked for backing mission-driven entrepreneurs and early-stage innovation communities across Japan and Southeast Asia, especially in education, sustainability, food, and emerging technology. | Japan and Southeast Asia | Founder, Mistletoe | In 2019, his influence was less about scale and more about agenda-setting. Son helped expand the definition of Asian venture beyond consumer apps and financial technology, encouraging founders and investors to treat social systems, learning, agriculture, and long-horizon technology as legitimate entrepreneurial domains. |
| 44 | Gen Isayama Isayama was selected for building a Japan-US venture bridge that connected corporate innovation capital, startup formation, and global technology networks. | Japan and United States | Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, WiL | In 2019, Isayama's contribution was especially relevant for Japan's innovation transition. He helped corporations understand venture collaboration, helped founders access enterprise partners, and created a cross-border platform for technology transfer, strategic investment, and talent exchange. |
| 45 | Michael Kim Kim ranked for building one of North Asia's most important private equity platforms, with influence across Korea, Japan, China, consumer services, financial services, and corporate carve-outs. | South Korea | Founder and Chairman, MBK Partners | In 2019, Kim's profile reflected the maturation of Asian buyouts. His platform showed that North Asian control investing could achieve scale through sector specialization, governance capability, and deep local execution. He helped prove that private equity in Asia could be institutional, regional, and operationally ambitious. |
| 46 | Jon Medved Medved was selected for widening access to Israeli technology investing and for connecting startups to a global network of individual, institutional, and strategic investors. | Israel | Founder and Chief Executive Officer, OurCrowd | In 2019, Medved's influence came from democratizing venture participation while maintaining a technology-focused deal pipeline. His work helped position Israel as a vital West Asian innovation hub and strengthened capital links among cybersecurity, medical technology, mobility, artificial intelligence, and global commercialization networks. |
| 47 | Michael Eisenberg Eisenberg ranked for his role in early-stage Israeli venture investing and for backing founders building global software, marketplace, financial technology, and infrastructure companies from Israel. | Israel | Co-Founder and Equal Partner, Aleph | In 2019, Eisenberg represented the founder-aligned, thesis-driven investor in Israel's technology market. His influence came from helping companies think globally from inception, combining capital with narrative, hiring, commercial discipline, and strategic market entry. |
| 48 | Chemi Peres Peres was selected for long-standing leadership in Israeli venture capital and for helping institutionalize technology investing across software, life sciences, communications, and deep technology. | Israel | Co-Founder and Managing General Partner, Pitango Venture Capital | In 2019, Peres remained an important figure in Israel's innovation finance system. His contribution lay in continuity: linking successive generations of founders with disciplined venture capital, global partners, and a belief that small-market companies could be built for worldwide relevance from the first day. |
| 49 | Li Lu Li ranked for his influence as a long-horizon value investor connecting Asian enterprise quality with global capital discipline. | China and United States | Founder and Chairman, Himalaya Capital | In 2019, Li's relevance came from an investment philosophy that contrasted sharply with late-cycle momentum. His work emphasized business durability, capital allocation quality, management character, and compounding over time. Within an Asian market crowded by rapid-growth narratives, that discipline remained a powerful counterweight. |
| 50 | Richard Li Li was selected as a strategic investor and corporate dealmaker whose influence spanned telecommunications, financial services, insurance, media, and technology-linked capital formation. | Hong Kong | Chairman, Pacific Century Group | In 2019, Li's dealmaking profile reflected Hong Kong's role as a regional capital hub. His influence came from assembling businesses, financing expansion, attracting partners, and turning sector conviction into platforms that could operate across Asian markets. |
Methodology
How the list was built
The ranking applies an independent editorial research process focused on individual capital influence, deal relevance, platform-building and market architecture.
InfluenceAsia prepared the 2019 ranking through an independent editorial research process designed to identify individual influence rather than institutional publicity. The assessment combined professional role verification, transaction relevance, platform significance, market contribution, and qualitative judgement about the durability of each honoree's work in the 2019 investment environment.
The research process began with a longlist of investors, sovereign-capital executives, venture capitalists, buyout leaders, growth investors, capital-market advisers, and transaction architects active across Asian markets. Candidates were screened for individual agency: the ranking required evidence that the person had meaningful decision authority, visible platform leadership, or a clearly attributable role in capital formation, transaction execution, founder access, or market architecture.
InfluenceAsia then evaluated each qualified candidate across seven weighted dimensions: capital allocation consequence, 2019 deal relevance, platform-building and ecosystem influence, cross-border and Asia connectivity, company and founder value creation, risk discipline and governance, and public legacy. The final order reflects editorial synthesis rather than a mechanical score. Fund size alone did not determine placement. Public profile alone did not determine placement. A candidate with a smaller platform could outrank a larger institution if the individual's 2019 contribution was more distinctive, catalytic, or strategically important to the evolution of Asian investment markets.
The methodology deliberately separates influence from popularity. InfluenceAsia considered the scale of capital affected, the strategic importance of transactions or portfolios, the quality of founder and company impact, the maturity of governance contribution, the ability to connect Asian and global capital, and the individual's role in shaping how markets behaved in 2019. Where major capital deployment also raised questions about valuation, discipline, or governance, those questions were treated as part of the influence assessment rather than ignored.
- Capital Allocation Consequence22%
- 2019 Deal Relevance18%
- Platform-Building and Ecosystem Influence16%
- Cross-Border and Asia Connectivity14%
- Company and Founder Value Creation12%
- Risk Discipline and Governance10%
- Public Legacy and Market Architecture8%
Notes
Copyright and legal statement
Copyright
Copyright 2019 InfluenceAsia. All rights reserved. InfluenceAsia 50: Asia's Top Investors & Dealmakers 2019 is an original editorial and research compilation prepared by InfluenceAsia. The ranking structure, selection framework, category language, honoree profiles, research dimensions, methodology, and publication text are proprietary editorial assets of InfluenceAsia.
Editorial Independence
All names, company names, fund names, and business identifiers appearing in this ranking are used solely for editorial identification and descriptive context. Their inclusion does not imply sponsorship, authorization, partnership, endorsement, certification, or approval by any honoree or named organization.
Legal Disclaimer
The ranking is based on InfluenceAsia's independent assessment of professional influence, capital significance, dealmaking relevance, and market contribution during the 2019 edition year. InfluenceAsia does not provide investment advice, legal advice, tax advice, fund due diligence, securities analysis, or solicitation of any financial product. Readers should not rely on this ranking as a basis for investment, employment, fundraising, partnership, or transactional decisions. InfluenceAsia applies a good-faith editorial verification standard, but the investment industry is dynamic and private-market information can be incomplete, confidential, or subject to later revision. InfluenceAsia makes no warranty, express or implied, regarding the completeness, commercial fitness, or future accuracy of any ranking position, biographical description, transaction characterization, or market interpretation.